X-rated Bob wrote
Squonk, you get around! What a broad range of music you listen to. Not many people I know would listen to prog rock and the godfather of English folk in the same month (I don't). Breadth and curiosity are good things when it comes to music, and you have both in spades.
I saw Carthy in London in 2008. I didn't know much about him, though I was aware of his reputation. I guess I was expecting something like Ralph McTell on steroids. Wrong! For about the first five minutes I was thinking "this guy is from MARS". For the rest of the evening (he did a 45 minute set, took a break, then did about an hour), I was thinking that this was the most amazing live music experience of my life. And I still think that. His performance was so utterly convincing, and I don't know if he does this knowingly or not, but a guitar rings like a bell when this guy plays, and he sets up these chiming, sustained drones and it's damn hypnotic. There was conviction in his performance (he's not really a guitarist when he plays live, he's a storyteller first and foremost), great skill and yet this economy to his playing - so potent, but so little flash. And all the time his guitar is sounding like somebody's smacking these big bells with a really expensive hammer. The very last number he did was an instrumental and then, at last, the fireworks went off.
I still get excited thinking about it.
This video brings out the storyteller and I am intrigued by his picking style, it's off the charts
My next UK visit will be planned around seeing him play live somewhere.
